KS1 Mental Maths Workout - Year 1

This book is a really helpful part of the CGP Year 1 Maths series. The explanations are clear, the activities are well structured, and the questions are just the right level for young learners. My child found it engaging without feeling overwhelmed, and it’s been great for reinforcing what’s covered at school. The layout is colourful and child-friendly, and the progression across the series makes it easy to build confidence step by step. A solid choice for extra practice at home or light revision. Highly recommended for Year 1 parents.

I've used many types of books to test my children at home. This is my favourite. The thing about some other books, is the tendency to bombard a child with so many colours and cartoons, they spend more time concentrating on those than the actual work they're supposed to be doing. While they are great when you want to sit down with your child and share the subject, I don't find them as helpful for testing knowledge. These books, however, are presented in a far more 'serious' way. My daughter (six) actually enjoys these more because she can get down to the work quickly and get it finished. Also, I can see exactly how she'd react to the more straight forward tests she will encounter throughout her school life. As other reviewers have said, there are three sections to each page, the first being easier than the third. The book, as a whole, gets harder too as you get further into it and represents the progress a KS1 child is expected to make during year one. There are a few speed tests at the end of the book, but you could just as easily let your child answer at their own pace and ignore that if they feel pressured. As I am homeschooling my daughter until she goes to school at 7, this has been a great help. I did use a few other workbooks to build up a varied range of skills, but this one I feel gave me a very clear picture of her understanding of the subject and allowed me to help her brush up on anything she was still confused about. She is now into her year two KS1 studies and I have bought the corresponding book from this range. When I'm confident she's learned all she should have learned in year two, I'll be sitting her down to work through that one too. Obviously, this book cannot teach an entire subject to your child, but it can certainly confirm how well they're doing. My daughter can read well enough to complete this book herself, but even if your child cannot read very well, I think this book could help them get used to the language used in maths questions.

Great learning books

A very good, progressive, mental arithmetic book, with the line drawings in the early exercises being phased out from exercise 6 on. However, each page retains a number line, though for the final "time yourself" questions even this is dropped. Generally addition and subtraction, some multiplication from the two and ten times table appear near the end. The book will last throughout the year. Overall there are 28 "paper" exercises (where the child will work in the book) plus 24 "mental arithmetic" pages where the questions could be read out, with the aim of doing one of each every week. So - if you are a tutor - this is could be an ideal start for any weekly session!

good to quiz pupils and speed up cognitive skills, My pupils gained confidence as success breeds success. outstanding book will use it again and again.

This is a fantastic book with single page worksheets that gradually get harder as the book progresses. This pattern is also present in the worksheet itself, where some basic reasoning skills (that are developed more in the Bond books) can be practiced. I felt that this book was good value for money. There is a lot more practice for the child than in some of the colourful, sticker filled books. I didn't find the lack of colour and stickers a problem. Each worksheet is short, and stickers can be bought if necessary. I highly rate the other books in this series too.

My daughter is stronger in reading than maths so got this to check she's on target, she zipped through 6 pages practically by herself this am & wanted to do more. It will be interesting to see how she gets on as the questions progress onto a few multiplication and trickier questions. Great to see lots of mathematical language being used make £4 larger by £6, minus, take away, less and subtraction. Giving kids a wide variety of learning and understanding... just bought the y2 book in preparation!

Recommended for maths practice for year 1 at home during holidays.